The big news in Georgia fishing this week has to be the announcement by DNR that an out-of-state firm has been hired to process fishing license purchases and renewals (along with hunting licenses and small boat registrations). I’ve read reports on this development in several Georgia newspapers (links can be found at the end of this article) and there appear to be three main complaints: fee increases for license processing, fees being sent out-of-state, and the loss of 80% of the license retailers who are going to be booted out of the system by Missouri Central Bank.

On two recent weekends in November, I decided to get some outdoor time with my camera instead of my rod and reel. In search of Autumn foliage but without a full day to head up to the North Georgia Mountains, I instead went west to Sweetwater Creek State Park. Less than 30 minutes from my home in Decatur, I was surprised to find a beautiful park with such a remote feeling only one exit west of Six Flags. On the topic of fishing, I found some good and some bad, but there is nothing ugly at this Georgia State Park.

A pleasant surprise during this torturously hot and dry Georgia summer was the addition of Bull Sluice Lake to my fishing lineup. The flipside to Lake Lanier being lowered by ten feet this summer is that all of that water has to go somewhere after leaving Buford Dam. And it all flows down the Chattahoochee, keeping Bull Sluice Lake at a comfortable level.

Fishing was slow on Lake Jackson this past Sunday, so my fishing buddy Greg and I decided to go exploring in areas of the lake that we don't usually visit. The most-recent fishing report I had read said that the lake was down nearly three feet, but the recent heavy rains and storms had brought the lake back up, and it appeared full to me.